CBA defeats Triton baseball
By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on March 31, 2012 11:49 PM
ERWIN -- The wait is over.
Denied in its previous two attempts, the Charles B. Aycock varsity baseball team presented its head coach with a long-awaited, milestone victory -- an 8-1 decision over Triton in Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference action Friday evening.
Charles Davis finally got his 400th career win.
"The most important thing to me is winning a conference game," Davis said. "Coming over here and winning at Triton, it's always a tough place for us to play. We hadn't played well this week and had been in a slump offensively.
"The kids came out tonight and played really well. I was proud of them."
Adam Pate, Cameron Taylor (RBI) and Justin Barbour (RBI) cranked out two hits apiece. Bryant Stafford (two RBI) and Collin DuBose (three RBI) each supplied one hit.
Stafford delivered an RBI single and DuBose connected on an RBI sacrifice fly in the first inning. Barbour mashed a run-scoring double in the third inning. Taylor stroked an RBI single and Stafford added a sac fly in the fourth inning.
DuBose's two-run triple and a Triton error capped the Golden Falcons' scoring in the sixth inning.
Aycock had nine hits overall.
"Those five guys are my top five hitters and that's what we've been missing," Davis said. "They're not a secret and everyone knows they're our leaders. They stepped it up tonight."
Taylor emerged the winning pitcher, permitting six hits and fanning two Triton batters in 4 1/3 innings of work. Pate threw 1 2/3 innings of two-strikeout relief, while DuBose tossed a perfect seventh that included one strikeout.
Triton scored its lone run in the third inning.
"It was not his best outing, but you know Cameron will battle his tail off," Davis said. "The more the game went on, the sharper he got. He got a bunch of ground balls and we played very good defense behind him. The key was we didn't walk people."
The Golden Falcons (8-4 overall, 4-3 ECC) snapped a three-game skid in conference play, and triumphed for just the second time in their last six outings.
A modest Davis reflected on his achievement.
"Number one, I've been blessed to be able to come to work every day to a place that I love and really enjoy," Davis said. "I've had some very good players and more importantly, I have had great people for me. My assistants over the years have done a fantastic job. It's not all about me, I can tell you that. The school and community have been very supportive, too.
"My wife, Rhonda, and my daughter, Connor, and my son, Kyle... they've sacrificed a lot and I haven't seen them play a lot. They're very understanding and Rhonda has done a great job doing a balancing act with them."